PRESS RELEASE 2024.01.11

The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) offers our most heartfelt wishes for a happy New Year.
Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, the NACT saw visitor numbers climb much higher than anticipated, restoring our usual vibrantatmosphere. However, the easing of the pandemic has done little to alleviate the harsh and chaotic global realities we all face, and we are grateful that
we are able to continue holding exhibitions despite these troubling circumstances. In 2024, the Center will present a diverse array of contemporary art
by creators representing a wide range of generations. Also, this year we are pleased to serve as the venue for exhibitions by 82 artist associations, thefirst of which opens today.
This year's first special exhibition is NACT View 04 – Reijiro Wada: FORBIDDEN FRUIT. Visitors will be greeted by a captivating installation
incorporating actual fruit, installed in front of the main entrance.
Universal / Remote, a group exhibition conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic, was aptly organized through remote meetings due to the constraintsof the time. This ambitious show explores various aspects of our digital society, revealing hidden realities and disrupted worldviews lurking beneath theconvenience of remote connectivity without face-to-face engagement.
Meanwhile, our series of compelling solo exhibitions continues. Henri Matisse – Forms in Freedom, initially planned for 2021 and postponed due to thepandemic, will finally open. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the vivid world of Matisse's paper cut-outs, including the magnum opus
Flowers and Fruit, which will be shown in Japan for the first time.
We are also delighted to announce an exhibition celebrating the 35th anniversary of the debut of CLAMP, a group of four women who have achieved
great popularity in Japan and abroad, primarily for their contributions to manga.
Keiichi Tanaami, known for his prolific and diverse practice spanning video, painting, sculpture, and design, turns 88 this year, and we will have thehonor of hosting his first retrospective. Also, we will present a unique exhibition of the work of Ei Arakawa-Nash, a performance artist highly active
overseas, in conjunction with multiple painters. Incorporating performance into the venue, the show will emphasize collaboration among disparate
creators, transforming the audience's relationship with painting.
In times of seemingly inescapable polarization and conflict, we must make ever more conscious efforts to sharpen our imaginations, foster awareness of
our coexistence with others and the natural environment, and acknowledge differing values. The National Art Center, Tokyo, remains committed to ourrole as a site that explores and promotes harmonious coexistence, eliciting empathy and insight through a broad range of exhibitions and educational
programs.
We sincerely appreciate your kind support as we continue this endeavor in the new year.
Osaka ErikoDirector General
The National Art Center, Tokyo1／7   

Since the late 20th century, people, capital, and information came to move on aglobal scale. We entered a new phase in the 2010s along with the proliferation ofsmart devices and issues such as excessive tourism, shifting of industry'sproduction costs and environmental impact to developing nations, the digital
divide and so forth were only worsening as the 2020s dawned. And while theoutbreak of a pandemic that recognizes no borders suddenly put the brakes on
the movement of people, the limitless flow of capital and information showed nosign of stopping. In fact, it seems we are seeing the true visage of capital andinformation systems for the first time. The rich and the poor, the powerful and thepowerless: imbalances in our world are becoming more explicit all the time.

Giorgi Gago Gagozhidze, Hito Steyerl, Miloš Trakilović
Mission Accomplished: Belanciege
2019
3 channel HD video (color, sound), environment (47min 23s)

The exhibition title Universal / Remote references prevailing conditions in the 21stExhibition view Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.): Hito Steyerl, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE, 2019

century as capital and data flow freely on a global scale. Conveying comical

Photo © Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) / Jens Ziehe

video installation, environment, written and co-produced by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Hito Steyerl, and Miloš Trakilović
Courtesy the artists; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York; Esther Schipper, Berlin

aspects of the excesses of surveillance and high-tech networks, as well as theprofound isolation of human beings, works in this exhibition seem to grapple
head-on with the current era and with the post-COVID world. The exhibition
presents the works of 8 artists and a group of 3 artists that address the state ofsociety in the 21st century as shaped by the conditions described above, focusing
on two concepts, “Constant Growth at a Pan-Global Scale” and “The Remote
Individual.”
Artists: Daisuke Ida / Xu Bing / Trevor Paglen / Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, HitoSteyerl, Miloš Trakilović / Maiko Jinushi / Tina Enghoff / Jeamin Cha / Evan Roth /Natsuko Kiura

Evan RothSince You Were Born
2023
Custom wallpaper, dimensions variable
Installation View of the MOCA Jacksonville: Since You Were Born, 2019
© Evan RothCourtesy of the MOCA JacksonvillePhoto by Doug Eng

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Ei Arakawa-Nash, NEMESIS PAINTING (PURR … formance!), 2022, David Zwirner, New York
Photo: Santiago Felipe
Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner

A collaborative exhibition between paintings by mostly New York painters and Ei Arakawa-Nash since the 2000s. By continuouslyworking with others, the artist reconfigures the subjective “I.” The group performances within which Arakawa-Nash works emphasize
and derive from the ever-present precarity of artworks. A stroke becomes a scenario, a canvas becomes an actor, and color becomes achant. His disruptive performances transform the audience's relationship with painting.
Ei Arakawa-Nash (b. in Fukushima, Japan) is a performance artist based inNew York since 1998. He relocated to Los Angeles in 2019. His
performances are created through collaborations with various people
including contemporary artists. The means of these collaborations arediverse, with such figures physically participating as performers, and in otherinstances their works themselves making appearances. Arakawa-Nash's act
establishes the intersection between collaborations with other artists and theaudience as his very practice.
Recent performances/exhibitions include; Turbine Hall at Tate Modern,London (2021); Artists Space, New York (2021); Honolulu Biennial (2019);
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2018); Sculpture
Project Münster (2017); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2017); The 9th Berlin

Ei Arakawa-Nash, Mega Please Draw Freely, 2021, Tate Modern, London
Photo: Rikard Österlund
Courtesy of the artist and Tate Modern

Biennale (2016); Gwangju Biennial (2014); Whitney Biennial, New York(2014); Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013); The Museum of Modern
Art, New York (2012).

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Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is known as one of the greatest masters of the 20th-century art. Heemerged in Paris as a central figure in Fauvism, a style characterized by the daring liberation ofcolor from the role of reproducing nature. In Nice, where he spent most of the latter half of hislife, Matisse prolifically painted a remarkable variety of models and objects at his studio, andeventually arrived at the series known as Cut-Outs, in which he cut shapes and images out ofcolored paper with scissors and pasted them onto other sheets of paper.
This exhibition will feature a total of about 150 works and archival materials from the collection ofthe Musée Matisse Nice, France, including paintings, sculptures, prints, and textiles, with aparticular focus on the Cut-Outs. Notably, Flowers and Fruits a large and stunning Cut-Out fromthe museum's collection, is a must-see, restored in France for this exhibition and on view inJapan for the first time.
The exhibition will also focus on the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (often referred to as theVence Chapel), which was built in Matisse's final years and can be seen as a culmination of hislong career, and will present aspects of this masterpiece from architecture to interior decorationand ceremonial dress.
Organized by The National Art Center, Tokyo; Musée Matisse, Nice; The Yomiuri Shimbun; Nippon Television Network Corporation

Henri Matisse, Nu bleu IV, 1952© Succession H. Matisse
Photo: François Fernandez­  We will present an exhibition tracing the trajectory ofCLAMP, a creative collective of four women who produce
diverse manga across various genres including boys', girls',
and young men's comics. The exhibition will primarily
showcase original manga drawings from their debut to thepresent day, created for a wide range of publishers andmagazines. This major mid-career retrospective revisits
messages that CLAMP has conveyed over the years inworks that have long captivated readers of all ages, gendersand nationalities.
Organized by The National Art Center, Tokyo; CLAMP Exhibition Production Committee

4／7 ­  This exhibition marks the world's first major retrospective
exhibition by Japanese artist, Keiichi Tanaami. Theexhibition engages with the theme of “memory,” a keyword
which serves to unravel Tanaami's artistic practice spanningover half a century, and attempts to uncover the entirety ofhis diverse oeuvre. In addition to new paintings, sculptures,and animations, the exhibition will feature valuable graphic
design and illustration works created between the late1960s and early 1970s, as well as a series of vibrantly
colored wooden sculptures from the 1980s, and some of hisearliest pop art works that were recently discovered in hisKeiichi Tanaami, The Story of Death and Rebirth, 2019
©Keiichi Tanaami / Courtesy of Nanzuka

studio.
Organized by The National Art Center, Tokyo; The Asahi Shimbun
With the cooperation of NANZUKA    ­  Born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1977 and currently based in Berlin, Germany, Reijiro
Wada is a sculptor working with metaphysical concepts and themes such as theuniverse, life, and time, through a practice of his own, using physical phenomena anddynamics. The artist has built up an international reputation through a series of works,
including the ISOLA installation, which is composed of floating glass modules on water
surface, VANITAS depicting an abstract structure on brass canvas with traces of fruits
decaying, SCARLET containing wine as a liquid suggestive of the passage of time, andSTILL LIFE suspending raw fruits between transparent glasses. At times, Wada
intervenes directly in the environment using nature. His sculptures, characterized bytheir multi-dimensional disposition, have an effect on viewer's perspective and thespace where they are settled. Wada shows FORBIDDEN FRUIT in this exhibition.

Reijiro Wada, FORBIDDEN FRUIT, 2023, tempered glass, brass, fruits and plants
Installation view at Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art
Photo: Nobutada Omote

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Henri Matisse - Forms in Freedom
February 14 (Wed) - May 27 (Mon)Special Exhibition Gallery 2E

Universal / Remote
March 6 (Wed) - June 3 (Mon)Special Exhibition Gallery 1E
CLAMP EXHIBITION
July 3 (Wed) - September 23 (Mon)Special Exhibition Gallery 2E

Keiichi Tanaami RETROSPECTIVE [TBC]
August 7 (Wed) - November 11 (Mon)Special Exhibition Gallery 1E
Paintings’ Attitudes (Thank You)Ei Arakawa-Nash [TBC]
October - December [TBC]
Special Exhibition Gallery 2E

NACT View 04 Reijiro Wada: FORBIDDEN FRUITJanuary 24 (Wed) - June 10 (Mon)
Public Space Main Entrance Exhibition title

PeriodHenri MatisseFebruary 14 - May 27- Forms in Freedom

Admission
AdultsCollege students

High schoolstudents

Junior high schooland younger

2,200 yen
（2,000 yen）

1,400 yen
（1,200 yen）

1,000 yen（800 yen）

Free

1,500 yen

1,000 yen

Universal / Remote

March 6 - June 3

CLAMP EXHIBITION

July 3 - September 23

TBC

August 7 - November 11

TBC

Keiichi Tanaami
RETROSPECTIVE (TBC)
Paintings' Attitudes (Thank You)Ei Arakawa-Nash(TBC)
NACT View 04

Reijiro WadaFORBIDDEN FRUIT- All prices include tax.
- Parentheses are advance prices.

October - December[TBC]

January 24 - June 10Free

TBC
Free

Information in the table as of January 11, 2024. More information on tickets will be posted at a later date on the exhibition websites.
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